On Mar 15, 1996 16:44:00, '"START, Rodney" <[log in to unmask]>' wrote:

>We are about to begin databasing and image capturing our  backlog of 20
>years worth of negatives which are numbered in any way.  A large
proportion
>of them are strips of 35mm and 6x7cm negatives.  Does anyone have a good
>system of handling strips of images?

I apologize for not responding to your inquiry until now.  I have been
collecting 35mm negatives in strips for a number of years and have
developed what I consider to be a fairly simple and obvious system for
identifying them.  I think my system is similar to one of your options.

I don't collect negatives in pages, rather, I file them in strips.  Each
strip is numbered sequentially and so identified on the outside sleeve of
the negative.  Because I control all the negatives, I have not written the
number on the negative itself, but in an institutional setting that should
be done.  I believe there are special pens that can be used for this
purpose.

I don't recommend making a page identifier part of the numbering system.
The page number will be valuable to record, but is redundant and may not be
permanent.  I've seen negative collections that have been disassembled,
page number and frame number by themselves were not enough information to
reconstruct the identifying system.  Here is an analogous example.  Many
years ago I was working in a French civic library that had been in
existence from at least the 18th century.  Originally the catalogue
(actually a ledger) identified each volume by its armoire and shelf number.
 In the nineteenth century someone took down the armoires and refiled the
books on library shelves, but didn't record the new locations.  The ledger
with armoire and shelf numbers remains an interesting document, but it was
almost impossible to locate any of its listed volumes.

If you have negatives in different formats, I'd suggest that each media or
format be provided with its own numbering prefix or media identifier.  Do
not merge the numbering system for one size negative with those of another
size.

Any single negative is known by a combination of the strip number and the
frame number appearing on the negative itself.  Most of mine have been
wound from bulk film, so the numbering sequence goes from 1 through 44.
Because any roll of film can start at any of these numbers, number 1 is not
necessarily the first exposure on the roll.

This numbering system (e.g. 5415/23) qualifies as a unique identifier for
most computer databases.

The negatives themselves, and their sleeves are identified only by the
above system, however the photo records contain information on the roll
number, photograph date, place and subject matter information, plus
equipment and photography dada.

I also keep a set of contact sheets filed sequentially.  Each sheet is
identified by roll number and by strip number written on the edge.  Care is
taken so make at least one frame number visible on each contact strip.

Finally (and this last system may be attributed to the subject matter of my
photographs: Renaissance illustrated books), a second contact sheet is cut
up into individual frames and recombined (stamp album style) in order to
reconstruct the original work.

Now I have a question.  If I convert these negatives to Kodak PhotoCD
scans, what kind of identifying number system can be used to link each CD
image to my negative database.  Am I correct in assuming that each Kodak
PhotoCD is branded with an accessible unique number, and each image is
provided with a sequential filenumber?
--

Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont N.Y. 10538
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